July 21, 2017
Securities and Exchange Commission,
I hope we do not have to replay 1929. This attempt to reject fiduciary trust seems to amount to greed, wanting more and more. With the gap between the rich and poor being the greatest since 1929, I hope we don't have to crash. Sometimes it seems that the rich are trying to get more and more,never enough. Look at how the gap has widened between a company's top paid and lowest paid since WW II. The retirees I know are just making it.
When investors turn to financial professionals for advice, they expect and deserve advice that's in their best interests. But some "advisers" who work for broker-dealers are not always required to meet that standard, and some may even be paid in ways that reward them for putting the interests of the firm ahead of the best interests of the customer. Investors lose out on tens of billions of dollars in investment returns each year when these conflicted advisers recommend inferior investment products that pay them more. I urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt new rules, modeled on the Department of Labor's rule for retirement investment advice, requiring brokers to act in their customers' best interests and requiring firms to reduce conflicts that undermine that standard. Investors don't need more boilerplate disclosures, they need real protections from industry practices that put their financial well-being at risk.
James Van Looy